quarta-feira, setembro 28, 2005

Caos em Gaza

«But here again is the key difference so far between Iraq and Palestine. Abbas’ cabinet is not galvanizing popular support for fighting the terrorists, whose thuggery against Palestinians is tolerated as unfortunate blowback from their anti-Israeli jihad. Yet for Palestine to become a sovereign state that conducts normal relations with its friends and negotiates differences with the Israelis, the elected government, like Iraq’s, must assume a monopoly on the use of force and put down warlords and gangs.

(...)

Abbas must unambiguously accept the existence of the Jewish state and thus give up the boilerplate slogans about sending 4 million Arabs into pre-1967 Israel under the “right of return.” Instead of Palestinian officials praising terrorists in Arabic (“heroes fighting for freedom”) while condemning them in English to European diplomats, Abbas and his cabinet very soon must decree that Hamas and other killers lay down their weapons or face the fate of all outlaws.

(...)

Islamicists who shoot, not Westerners who support those who vote, alone can destroy the future of Afghanistan, Iraq — and Palestine.

President Talabani and his Iraqi parliament, like President Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan, are making progress as they fight the radical Islamic enemies of democracy and the rule of law. Mahmoud Abbas, in contrast, has not even begun.»